Interview Coaching
Interview coaching is the secret to interviewing well and getting a job offer. It will prepare you to answer typical interview questions, as well as unusual and difficult ones, such as, behavior-based questions (more on this later).
Interviewing is a high-stakes activity. Do it well and an offer of employment is likely. Do it poorly and you can expect a rejection because it is the job interview, not the resume, that ultimately determines every hiring decision. Know that even very intelligent, highly communicative people often need interview coaching. This is because it is challenging to formulate and deliver great responses on the spot. In addition, most people overestimate their ability to interview well and underestimate the competition (the other people being interviewed).
Your “job” as the applicant is to anticipate the questions you may be asked, formulate impressive responses, and then deliver those somewhat rehearsed answers in a way that sounds completely natural.
Preparing yourself for the typical interview questions is essential. However, know that a skilled interviewer will not simply ask you the standard questions. He or she may also challenge you with technical questions unique to your occupation or behavior-based questions. Behavior-based questions require you to tell your interviewer about a situation that demonstrates a particular skill, often a personality trait, like tenacity or creativity. You may even be given a test to assess your personality attributes or your skill level with computer software.
Interview Practice Sessions
If you are ready to acknowledge that you can benefit from some interview coaching, the next step is to lose the fear. I say this because some clients are quite nervous about the coaching session. Please don’t feel that way. You can mangle the answers to every single question I ask you, and it will be okay because we can fix all of it! I will coach you on what to say in response to all types of questions and what questions you should and should not ask of your interviewer. Furthermore, I will unearth your accomplishments and show you how to weaving those successes into your answers. We will also delve into personality characteristics that are relevant and interesting so that you can share that in your interview as well. In addition, during our practice session, if there are any issues related to your speech rate, facial expressions, or body language, we will take care of that too.
A typical interview coaching session is 1.5 hours. Some individuals need just one session while others benefit from a second session, and very rarely, a third. If we need to do additional sessions, it will only be because we both feel you need them in order to be successful on your real-life interview day. If there are specific questions you want help answering, we will work on those, but this is NOT necessary as I always develop both basic and advanced questions in preparation for these sessions. My feedback will include very specific coaching as I will tell you exactly what to say in response to questions you have difficulty with. I will also prepare you to discuss salary issues effectively, which is often a very tricky topic to finesse.